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Bible Dictionaries
Unicorn
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or UNICORN ( re’çm , Numbers 23:22 etc.; rçm , Job 39:9; RV [Note: Revised Version.] in all passages ‘wild ox’ ). This is undoubtedly the rîmu of the Assyrians, often figured on their sculptures. A fine bas-relief of this animal was uncovered recently by the excavations of Nineveh. It is probably identical with the aurochs or Bos primigenius , the urus of Julius Cæsar. It was of great size and strength ( Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8 , Psalms 22:21 ), very wild and ferocious ( Job 39:9-12 ), and specially dangerous when hunted, because of its powerful double horns ( Psalms 92:10 , Deuteronomy 33:17 ). In connexion with Isaiah 34:7 it is interesting to note the inscription of Shalmaneser II., who says, ‘His land I trod down like a rîmu .’ The Arab. [Note: Arabic.] ri’m , the graceful Antilope leucoryx of Arabia, is a very different animal.
E. W. G. Masterman.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Unicorn'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/u/unicorn.html. 1909.
